Health and Social Services Minster Mildred Dover proclaimed Monday, December 1st, as World AIDS Day in Prince Edward Island in the Legislature today.
World AIDS Day is an international event that joins nations and communities to continue the fight against HIV/AIDS and improve care, support and treatment for persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Minister Dover said the 1997 theme, Children Living in a World with AIDS, was selected to highlight the devastating impact HIV infection has on the young people infected, and the family and friends affected by the illness.
"The theme is very appropriate," she said, "because all children in the world face a lifetime of risk from HIV infection, and in a world with AIDS, children are everyone's responsibility."
90% of HIV-positive children under the age of 15 are infected through mother-to-child transmission.
"Reducing HIV infection in infants means reducing the transmission of the virus to women," said the Minister. "And we are making progress. Today, with appropriate medications and treatment, less than 8 percent of children born of HIV positive women will be born infected."
The median age of new infections has dropped from 32 years of age in those infected before 1983 to 23 years in the 1985-1990 period. This means that half of all infections occurred in people 23 years old or younger.
In Canada, increasing numbers of teenagers are affected with HIV. Disturbing trends show that Canadians are continuing to become infected through unprotected sex and injection drug use, and vertical transmission from mothers to their babies during pregnancy and birth.
Minister Dover said that a new study by the Canadian Policy Research Network, The Economic Burden of HIV/AIDS in Canada, points out that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has spread into new populations of Canadians, where previously successful prevention strategies are not effective. The third wave of the epidemic is affecting young, marginalized populations of injection drug users, gay youth, Aboriginal people and vulnerable women.
The report suggests that in addition to the avoidance of human pain and suffering, there is a clear economic case for taking action against the spread of HIV infection. The direct cost of care and treatment over the lifetime of each person infected with HIV is $153,000. The indirect cost associated with the loss of productive living averages $600,000 per case.
Minister Dover said that her department will be working closely with AIDS PEI, the PEI Hemophilia Society and community groups in the implementation of Phase Three of the National AIDS strategy. "Our staff have participated with AIDS PEI staff in consultations with the federal government regarding the proposed Phase Three funding of $40.7 million per year from 1998 to 2002," she said.
"We have recommended that we must continue to provide adequate and compassionate care for persons living with HIV/AIDS, but because AIDS is a one-hundred-percent-preventable disease, prevention must remain our priority. We support a population health approach which targets our prevention programs to gay youth, Aboriginals, vulnerable women, and injection drug users. It will be our intent to work closely with our community partners, using a collaborative approach in program planning to maximize benefits for Prince Edward Islanders," she said.
The Department of Health and Social Services presently has contracted staff dedicated to initiatives which support HIV/AIDS prevention, and care and treatment of Islanders living with HIV/AIDS.
A recent study released by the Department of Health and Social Services indicated that the spread of HIV/AIDS through injection drug use is a potentially serious problem in PEI, and the Department is currently developing a provincial needle exchange policy with its community partners.
The 1988 Canada Youth and AIDS Study revealed that by Grade 9, a quarter of Canadian and Prince Edward Island youth had sexual intercourse at least once. 48 percent of PEI students in Grade 11 reported having sexual intercourse at least once, and 61 percent of those had two or more partners. As a result, an AIDS education program was introduced in 1997 for Grade 9 students to prevent HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The program has an 86.5 percent participation rate.
The Department of Health and Social Services provides drugs, treatment, and travel expenses for treatment when necessary for persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Specialized training is provided by Health and Social Services for caregivers working with persons with HIV/AIDS to provide services in a sensitive, caring and confidential manner.
Under the Communicable Disease Control program, reported cases of HIV/AIDS are followed up to track contacts the patient has made, assist the patient to access appropriate medical care and support, and provide support and education to others affected to prevent the spread of the disease in the community.